McDonald\u2019s boss reveals surprise item that\u2019s overtaking Big Macs McDonald’sMcDonald\u2019s has revealed that a few items on the menu that were proving to be performing incredibly well, and they all had one thing in common \u2013 chicken. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Kate Linebaugh last week at the WSJ Global Food Forum, Joe Erlinger, McDonald\u2019s US President sat down to talk about some of the best and worst performing food items sold at the chain. One of the biggest revelations came when Erlinger revealed that salads and plant-based items were set to be scrapped from the menu. \u201cIf people really want salads from McDonald\u2019s, we will gladly relaunch salads. But what our experience has proven is that\u2019s not what the consumer is looking for from McDonald\u2019s.\u201d In addition to this, Erlinger also noted the lack of popularity surrounding the chain\u2019s vegan McPlant, which was tested in two US locations during 2022: \u201cI don\u2019t think the U.S. consumer is coming to McDonald\u2019s looking for the McPlant or other plant-based proteins.\u201d But what about the items that are performing well? \u201cObviously, the bigger trend around protein consumption is really around chicken,\u201d Erlinger stated. \u201cWe\u2019re poised to serve that trend well,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re making investments in.\u201d \u201cSome of this protein consumption change is something that we really will have to watch,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that shift. We didn\u2019t have a chicken sandwich when we launched our brand in 1955. We sell more chicken today as a brand than we sell beef.\u201d \u201cPeople change what they eat very slowly over time. So yes, we are seeing those slow changes over time. I think some of it\u2019s driven by affordability\u2026 we know that chicken is less expensive to produce, and so for a consumer that\u2019s looking for more affordable food, chicken is a great option right now.\u201d It\u2019s not just about affordability, however, as more and more fast food restaurants are clamoring to create more chicken-based dishes as a result of customers\u2019 taste preferences. Wendy\u2019s is one such chain, as they brought their version of chicken nuggets out in June. In order to prepare the new products, Wendy\u2019s looked specifically to the Gen-Z demographic, and according to the results, \u201cwhat they want to eat protein-wise [is] chicken, chicken, chicken,\u201d said Wendy\u2019s Global Vice President of Culinary Innovation, John Li. This is true according to a survey conducted by Piper Sandler, who found that Chick-fil-A was the most popular restaurant among teens. He said that Wendy\u2019s \u201calready own[s] bacon and \u2026 fresh, never-frozen beef,\u201d but there was room to improve surrounding their chicken offerings. Even Burger King is now looking to chicken-based offerings, releasing flame-grilled chicken burgers in test markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McDonald\u2019s boss reveals surprise item that\u2019s overtaking Big Macs McDonald’sMcDonald\u2019s has revealed that a few items on the menu that were proving to be performing incredibly well, and they all had one thing in common \u2013 chicken. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Kate Linebaugh last week at the WSJ Global Food Forum, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}